


Ready or Not

by Notaricon



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anxiety, Awkward Romance, Chases, Drabble, F/F, Games, Hide and Seek, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Not Canon Compliant, Other, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Volleyball, Self-Esteem Issues, Social Anxiety, Touch-Starved, Weird Fluff, gay babies having a laff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-16 14:03:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20834348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Notaricon/pseuds/Notaricon
Summary: "We playin' hide and seek? 'Cause it looks like I win."Pink froze, an icy thrill of panic licking up the back of her neck. An arm whipped around from behind her, spinning her so quickly she couldn't help but stumble. There was Spinel, grinning too widely to look at all sincere."So," Spinel leaned in, every word over-enunciated and sweet in a way that felt dangerous. "How about you tell me why we're playing?"Or: Spinel and Pink Pearl play a game.





	Ready or Not

**Author's Note:**

> This sucker's entirely unbeta'd. Proceed at your own risk.
> 
> Written prior to the release of Steven Universe: Future.

Pink Pearl preferred to avoid the palace. 

She'd been getting by alright on her own. Being alone was a relief, most of the time. When she was alone with her thoughts, she knew they were hers. She liked it that way. She wanted to keep it that way. It was more than enough for her to help Yellow and Blue run the station, tucked safely away in a quiet back room.

Or it had been, before she found out about _her._

  


Yellow had mentioned her first: a Spinel the Diamonds had brought back from Earth.

"Well, something obviously _happened_ to her," she'd remarked to Blue as they were reviewing the day's footage. "She didn't look like… _that_ when they gave her to Pink D–" she cut herself short, and both of them shot nervous glances her way. It grated sometimes, how everyone seemed to think she'd break at the slightest little thing. Maybe it was the eye; the webbing of cracks. Damage didn't tend to stick to Gems so visibly, but hers had.

It'd taken days of needling to get more information after that. Finally, Blue had broken down and told her everything: how this particular Spinel had been given to Pink Diamond after her own... incident. How she'd been wounded, but no one would give the specifics. How something had happened on Earth which everyone seemed keen to sweep under the rug.

Pink snuck into the palace for the first time that day. She had to know. She had to see.

  


Spinel rarely stood still. Her boundless, frenetic energy was undercut by a thread of mania. There was almost a desperation there, but she couldn't put her finger on why.

Something _had_ obviously happened to her. She didn't look like any other Spinel Pink had seen. She was sharper, darker, more unkempt. There were shadows and dark streaks under her eyes, their rims slightly red. She looked scarred in a way Pink found uncomfortably familiar. 

Sometimes, when she was alone, Spinel would grip her hair and _pull,_ taking slow, deep, unnecessary breaths. Sometimes she gritted her teeth like she wanted to scream, her smile twisting briefly into something bitter and pained. Sometimes she stopped dead in her tracks, her gaze fixed on nothing, insensate to the world around her. Those were the only times she ever truly stopped moving.

Watching her became a hobby.

  


She thought she'd been careful to stay out of sight. She'd kept to shadowed alcoves, crept softly, done all she could to remain invisible.

It wasn't enough. _Of course_ it wasn't. Inevitably, during one of her secret trips to the palace, a voice startled her from her search.

"We playin' hide and seek? 'Cause it looks like I win."

Pink froze, an icy thrill of panic licking up the back of her neck. An arm whipped around from behind her, spinning her so quickly she couldn't help but stumble. There was Spinel, grinning too widely to look at all sincere.

"So," Spinel leaned in, every word over-enunciated and sweet in a way that felt dangerous. "How about you tell me why we're playing?" 

Pink's mind raced. She reached out, hesitant and shaking, and tapped Spinel's thin shoulder.

"... Y-you're it."

She didn't give herself time to parse the look of unguarded surprise on the other Gem's face. She simply turned and ran. She ran like a shattering force was at her back, terror and exhilaration thumping through her like a pulse. A wild, belated peal of laughter echoed behind her and she pushed harder, ran faster. It was more excitement than she'd felt in years.

That was how the game had begun.

  


Pink tried not to stick to a regular schedule. She slipped into the palace at odd times, taking different routes. It was hard to avoid predictability while also steering clear of the Diamonds (mostly White, especially White), but she threw her all into it.

Most days, she lost.

When Pink did manage to tag her first, Spinel would snatch her hand and hold it against herself like she couldn't help it, like she _needed_ it there. It was never for long. After a moment, she'd let go like she'd been burned and cringe away.

She wasn't half so uncertain when she won. She'd launch bodily into Pink, or reel her in like spring-loaded trap. Often, they'd end up in a tangled heap on the floor, Spinel's elastic limbs constricting around her. She'd tuck her head under Pink's chin and laugh herself into exhaustion. She gripped so tightly sometimes that it should have been unpleasant, but Pink found that she didn't mind. A feeling would stir warmly in her belly in those moments, effervescent and fluttering behind her gem.

Spinel liked to touch. She'd known that just from watching her. The longer their game went on, the more she did. She'd cradle the small of Pink's back. She'd wrap her hands around her waist and let them linger, slide them up or down, drag them over her sparse curves as she drew away. She didn't seem to realise she was doing it, but it set Pink alight in the strangest way.

  


One day, Spinel had lifted her head from atop Pink's chest and squinted down at her. A smile sliced slowly across her face.

"Y'know, we've been playin' for a while. How about we raise the stakes?"

Pink stared uncomprehendingly up at her, hazy and relaxed as she came down from the excitement of their strange little game. Spinel tapped a finger against her chin in a pantomime of deep thought.

"I think I ought'a get a prize. What do you say?"

Pink opened her mouth only to be silenced by a kiss. It was clumsy, hungry, _needy_ – and over almost as soon as it began.

Oh. _Oh._

Pink was still processing the unexpected, emphatic fact of it as Spinel tumbled bonelessly away, stammering panicked apologies. 

"Aw, geez, why'd I even think you'd want– with _me_ of all people…" She laughed, shaky and a touch shrill, "I mean, just look at me, why would _anybody_–"

Pink sat up. The other Gem was a shivering, snaking puddle of limbs, tugging uselessly at her hair. Without thinking, Pink reached out to take her hands. It was enough to startle Spinel into silence.

"It's alright," Pink began. "I liked it."

Spinel blinked dumbly at her, so she leaned in to kiss her again. Brows collided. Noses squished. She couldn't help the giggle that bubbled up from her belly, bright as a star.

They were both in stitches before long, gasping and clinging to one another.

Maybe this time they'd both won.


End file.
